Unit 3: Analytical and Critical Thinking - Practice Quiz

1 What is the main purpose of evaluating alternatives?

2 Which question best supports analytical reasoning when comparing solutions?

3 What should be identified before comparing different alternatives?

4 Which action demonstrates critical thinking?

5 What is a cognitive bias?

6 Confirmation bias occurs when a person mainly seeks information that does what?

7 What is the anchoring bias?

8 The availability bias causes people to judge situations based mainly on what?

9 Which practice can help reduce the effect of cognitive biases?

10 What is a rational decision-making approach?

11 What does a satisficing approach involve?

12 A decision matrix is mainly used to do what?

13 What is an important first step in decision-making?

14 Which approach gives a group a structured way to reach a shared decision?

15 What is the purpose of a pros-and-cons list?

16 A SWOT analysis examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and what?

17 What does a flowchart use to represent?

18 What is the main purpose of the five whys technique?

19 What is evidence-based evaluation?

20 Why is a baseline useful when evaluating a change?

21 A team is choosing between two software systems. System A has lower purchase cost, while System B has higher reliability and lower maintenance expenses. Which approach best supports a critical evaluation?

22 A city is comparing three locations for a recycling center. One location has the lowest construction cost but would create longer transportation routes. Which method would provide the most balanced evaluation?

23 A proposed product feature increases customer satisfaction in a small pilot but would significantly increase production complexity. What should the team do first?

24 A manager argues that a proposed training program is effective because employees who completed it received higher performance ratings. Which question most directly tests the strength of this conclusion?

25 After investing heavily in a failing project, a team continues funding it because members do not want the earlier investment to be wasted. Which bias is most evident?

26 A hiring panel gives excessive weight to the first candidate's salary request when judging all later candidates. Which bias is affecting the evaluation?

27 A project leader searches only for data supporting the decision already made and dismisses contradictory findings. Which practice would best reduce this bias?

28 A product team estimates that a new service will be highly successful because a similar service recently became popular. Which bias may be influencing this prediction?

29 Customers are more likely to choose a treatment described as having a 90% survival rate than one described as having a 10% mortality rate, even though the statistics are equivalent. Which bias is illustrated?

30 A team must decide whether to adopt a new technology despite uncertain demand. Which approach is most appropriate when several possible future conditions could occur?

31 A hospital must allocate limited funds among several programs. The programs have different costs, expected health benefits, and levels of risk. Which decision approach is most suitable?

32 A manager has enough information to identify a satisfactory option but not enough time to find the absolute best option. Which decision-making concept applies?

33 A team faces a high-impact decision with uncertain outcomes and wants to reduce exposure before making a full commitment. Which approach is most appropriate?

34 A service failure repeatedly occurs because of several interacting factors. Which technique is most useful for identifying underlying causes rather than treating symptoms?

35 A team wants to compare four solutions using criteria that have different levels of importance. Which tool would best organize this comparison?

36 A project manager wants to identify tasks that could delay the entire project if they take longer than planned. Which technique should be used?

37 A company is exploring whether to enter a new market. It wants to examine internal capabilities and external opportunities and threats. Which framework is most appropriate?

38 A school introduces a new teaching method in one class and compares its results with a similar class using the existing method. What makes this evaluation stronger?

39 A survey about workplace satisfaction receives responses from only 12% of employees, mostly from people with strong opinions. Which concern is most important?

40 A company reports that sales rose after a new advertising campaign. Which additional evidence would best support the claim that the campaign caused the increase?

41 A city must choose between projects A and B. A has a higher expected benefit, but its benefits vary substantially across scenarios; B has a lower expected benefit but performs consistently. Which analysis best supports a defensible choice?

42 An intervention appears superior to its alternatives because it improves three measured outcomes but worsens an unmeasured safety outcome. What is the strongest analytical response?

43 A proposed solution has a lower total cost than its alternatives, but the estimate assumes unusually favorable maintenance conditions. Which test most directly examines the robustness of the recommendation?

44 Two alternatives have equal expected utility, but one preserves the option to scale up after learning from a pilot. Which principle favors that alternative?

45 A team continues funding a failing project because it has already spent two years developing it. Which corrective practice most directly addresses the bias involved?

46 After observing several successful outcomes from a risky strategy, a manager concludes that the strategy is reliable despite a small sample. Which bias is most evident?

47 A negotiator receives an initial price of million and makes all later estimates close to that figure, although independent market data suggest a much lower value. Which debiasing method is most appropriate?

48 A project team seeks only studies supporting its preferred design and dismisses contradictory findings as irrelevant. Which intervention best reduces this pattern?

49 A forecast is repeatedly too optimistic, yet each new forecast is adjusted only slightly because managers believe the next case will be different. Which bias should be investigated first?

50 A decision has irreversible consequences, uncertain probabilities, and potentially catastrophic losses. Which approach is most defensible?

51 A group must decide whether to launch a product. Evidence is incomplete, but delaying has a measurable opportunity cost. Which decision rule best reflects this trade-off?

52 A committee must choose among alternatives with conflicting stakeholder values that cannot be reduced to one common metric. Which approach is most suitable?

53 A decision maker chooses the first solution that meets minimum requirements, even though better solutions may exist and search costs are substantial. Which approach is being used?

54 Two policies have similar expected outcomes, but policy X could create severe losses in a low-probability scenario while policy Y cannot. Under a minimax-regret approach, what should be examined?

55 A causal diagram shows that training improves performance, but only when employees have access to functioning equipment. Which structure does this relationship represent?

56 In a fault-tree analysis, system failure occurs if either subsystem A fails or both subsystems B and C fail together. Which logical expression represents this structure?

57 A team maps a problem as symptoms, immediate causes, and deeper systemic causes. Several symptoms trace back to the same policy constraint. What is the main analytical benefit of this map?

58 A program’s participants improve after implementation, but there is no comparison group and outcomes may reflect seasonal trends. Which conclusion is most justified?

59 A randomized trial finds a statistically significant effect that is much smaller than the threshold users consider meaningful. Which interpretation is best?

60 A review combines studies with highly different populations, interventions, and outcome measures, producing a single pooled estimate. What should analysts assess before trusting that estimate?